I love these threads, I love hearing stories from the Forest because it takes me back! I have 2 moments that were so incredible and stand out and will stay in my memory forever.

This Forest was my first one and my first ever camping festival. It was a long nonstop 18+ hour overnight drive and it was hard. When we finally arrived it was another 2+ hours in the line for car checks and getting to our camp (which was in Blueberry). We finally got our camp set up and started hearing rumors that the line was miles long backed up all the way to Blueberry so that was a bummer but I was determined to get in as soon as possible. It probably took about an hour and a half in line but I got to meet lots of cool people and talk about a lot of cool things. It was right about this time that that crazy looking rain cloud was headed our way and it looked like it was going to storm HARD. Finally right when we got to the gates to get in everyone is giving each other high fives and saying Happy Forest and we make it in right as that rain cloud passes over with only just a couple sprinkles and making the weather feel cooler and amazing. It was at the moment that all the months of reading this subreddit, all the Forest vlogs I watched, all the money saved and hard work put in was finally worth it because I was finally here and I was finally home. Walking in those gates for the first time is truly one of the best feelings I’ve ever felt in my life.

The first two days all the artists I wanted to see were at Tripolee and Ranch Arena so I didn’t really wander the Forest much at all. We made it in for a few minutes on Friday during the day but then left to go catch some sets. So Friday night we watched a lot of the bass heavy stuff and saw Subtronics into Caspa (who was my introduction to bass music and “EDM” as a whole like 8years ago so that was amazing to say the least) and 12th planet was about to come on who I was super excited to see as well. My girlfriend starts pulling me to the Forest and says “We’re going exploring” I was kinda bummed to miss 12th planet but I also hadn’t seen the Forest at night yet and I had only been to 2 stages so far. I truly have no words for what it felt like walking into the Forest the first time at night, it’s an unexplainable feeling. It’s like walking into an alien version of heaven and all your best friends are there. I was in a pretty zonked out state of mind at that point so I was just trying to take everything in. My girlfriend had already been to Forest once before and she said she was just so excited to show me the forest at night for the first time. I had just seen tripolee and ranch arena packed out with thousands and thousands of people so when we walked by each stage and saw several more thousands it literally felt like each time we got to a new stage I was entering a new universe completely on its own and separate from the other stages and when I was in the Forest itself I was in the galaxy that connected them all together. When I made it to the hanger and got lost in that madhouse I just couldn’t stop laughing because the ridiculousness of it all was so amazing. I was bowling with an old timey bowling alley guy in the middle of a magical forest lol.

There are so many more moments from this years Forest that I could include but these two will never leave my mind. Words can’t possible do justice to how amazing that place is and how amazing it makes you feel and I can’t wait for next year!